That they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. (Titus 2:4-5)

Learning To Love Your Children

Every person that has ever lived shares the single reality of creation than none had a choice in their birth. Adam and Eve had no choice in their creation. Man is formed by the power of God as He allows man to create life through the natural process of the will of God. Life is breathed into the tiny cells that make up the unborn child until the completion of the womb brings forth a baby. It is amazing how the Lord has allowed man to possess such power in deciding to bring forth another human being upon the earth. What is more remarkable is the influence of the parent upon the helpless child as it grows from infancy to adulthood. Every child born is dependent upon others to mold their bodies, spirits and intellect. A child born and raised in China will speak Chinese and bear the marks of the Chinese culture. The same child can be born of Chinese parents but raised in another culture growing up to speak that language and accept the ideals of the culture they learn. All children are born in the same fashion and all children grow in the same pattern. What makes a difference in a child is the manner of the influence of the world about them. We all share the same fate as to why we speak the languages we speak and accept the cultures that identify us. Children learn to become who they are by the world they live in.

Older women are admonished to teach young women to love their children. There is a natural affinity a parent has toward their child that defines the love for them. God has instilled in a mother an instinct of bonding towards a child carried in the womb and delivered in pain. The birth of a newborn is filled with joy and love as she caresses the newborn to her heart. If would seem there could be no greater love. The Holy Spirit exhorts older women to go beyond the natural love a mother has for their children and to spend time teaching young women a deeper relationship of love. There is a natural love and there is a taught love. This ‘taught love’ is so important in the training of the child.

One of the elements of the family lost in our American ideals of freedom is the ability of older women and younger women to share in learning how to love their husbands and their children. The text of Titus 2 clearly shows there is a part of love that must be learned. Learning to love children goes to the heart of the larger family element involved in the training of children. Sadly, it is not a common virtue for older women to teach younger women because in many cases younger women resent the instruction of the older. If a child is being unruly or disruptive, older women are not allowed to teach the younger women how to impress upon the child the lessons of reverence. The amazing part of parenting is that parents try to teach their children by their own wisdom when they have never experienced the years of training required to instill in a child what they need to know. Every parent believes they have all the answers to parenting when they have no experience. Older women are to teach younger women how to love their children because the older women (by virtue of age) have a greater sense of knowledge than younger women.

In the beginning, God created the family for a purpose. Adam and Eve had no mentors to rely on for their training but they are the only ones who can make that claim. One of the most important parts of the family is when older women are teaching younger women to love their children; and younger women are seeking out the wisdom of older women to help them teach their children. The wisdom of God’s creation is found in the influence of older men and women teaching younger men and women. Paul exhorted this pattern of family and called it “sound doctrine.” The families that grow together in the pattern of sound doctrine where younger women are seeking the advice of older women on the training of their children are families that will find the joy and fulfillment designed by God. Refusing to follow the pattern of God is planning for failure.